Any one try pa amplifiers for home stereo?


Hi, I was looking for info from anyone that had sorted through some of the offerings from QSC, Peavey, Hafler, Crown, and the alike for sound and compatability with home systems. I am looking to drive Infinity Kappa 9's. Dependability and cost seem interesting. I like a slightly warm sound with bloom and am midway through a Foreplay tube preamp build, Which should allow easy mods to selecting output voltages.
Thanks for your opinions.
guycom
In the 70's i used some crown gear for my home system and it sounded pretty good...not high end but not high end priced and it always worked. Some of the new crown amps are great, as are the QSC. They are never going to rival a good tube amp but i bet they'd do OK against a lot of the solid state gear. As far as high end home gear driving a PA...the stuff would sound great for the day or two it lived then you'd be dragging out the crowns and QSCs to get you through the rest of the week. for speakers...EVs any day
Drubin, I've never used the Meyer Sound, but heard good things about them. I actually did use some home gear on the stage, and it worked out real well. We didn't have any roadies throwing it into the backs of trucks or anything, but we handled it fairly gently, and it sounded better.
I've used Crown, Hafler, and QSC in pro applications (both in clubs and home project studios). Each has its own sound. Relatively (and superficially) speaking I would describe the Crown as pristine, the Hafler as warm, and the QSC somewhere between. The ones I've used have been fine amps for their purposes but cannot touch the sound of my AES SE-1 300b amp for home stereo. I can only imagine what more expensive/refined tube amps might sound like. (I've resisted listening to any to protect my wallet.)
I've got an AB International amp that just came in for a customer that i'm building a PA system for. It is rated at 525 wpc @ 8 and 850 @ 4. I have not heard it yet, but i'm going to hook it up before it goes out the door. My guess is that it will sound like most "generic" SS amps i.e. relatively sterile, lacking air and blackness, a somewhat hard and smeary sounding top end, lack of liquidity in the midrange, etc...

As far as someone using hi-end gear in Pro use, someone here had posted a link to where a reviewer of Pro gear tried to use a Pass amp in a recording studio. The results ? The guy basically loved the amp and no longer thought that "all SS amps sound alike" if i remember correctly. Sean
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Crown amps may be a good, and inexpensive, choice to drive a subwoofer, where ability to pump out many amps is useful, and where electronic distortion levels do not need to be as good as typical audiophile equipment. The sound characteristics that people describe as being inferior are all attributes of mid and high frequency components of the sound.